Obituary for Charles H Tompkins Jr.
Charles H. Tompkins, JR.
Born at home on May 22, 1930, In Somerset, Massachusetts, Chick (Chuck), was one of two sons and two daughters born to Charles H. Tompkins and Mary R. (Dailey) Tompkins. On his father’s side, he was descended from English settlers who arrived on this continent in the seventeenth century on the ship Truelove, his ancestors originally having settled in what is now Little Compton, R.I.; on his mother’s side, Irish immigrants in the nineteenth century.
In his youth he attended Pottersville Grammar School in Somerset, class of 1944, and in 1948 was a graduate of Somerset High School. From early age, very interested in sports, although somewhat handicapped, he actively participated on a non-organized level, and became an accomplished duck pin bowler. Ultimately, on individual and/or team levels, he contested in duck, candle, ten and rubber-band duck pin bowling.
With the formation of the Somerset Little League in 1051, he was manager of the Somerset Little League Red Sox for the first two years of that league, the team finishing the second in the first year and winning the championship in the second.
His education on hold because of recurring illness and uncertain military draft status during the Korean War (five attempts at enlistment and a medical rejection each time), on the day in 1952, at the Army processing center in Boston, where he was to be inducted into the army as a draftee, he was medically rejected for a final time.
High higher education consisted of an abbreviated attendance at Tri-State College of Angola, Ind. (terminated because of illness), attainment in 1957 of a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry, with honors, from Bradford Durfee College of Technology in Fall River, Mass. (now University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth) and a year of graduate study at the University of Pittsburg.
In 1959 he arrived in North Adams to begin employment at Sprague Electric Company. Over the years, through 1995, he was terminated from the company three times. After varying periods of unemployment, he was rehired each time; apparently as result of the efforts of friends and the necessity to the company of his job responsibilities. In 1995, he retired at his own discretion.
On July 20, 1963 he and Joan M. (Blanchette) O’Neill were married in Pittsfield, Mass. Joan passed in 2013, three months to the day short of fifty years of their marriage. As a result of their union, he became step-father to Sharon M. O’Neill, who in every way except genetics has been as true and loving a daughter as one could hope for.
The family moved to their hom in Clarksburg in 1965 and maintained residence there until his passing. Over the years, Joan was quite active in endeavors related to the town, while Chuck, because of the way he was, preferred to be at home.
He is survived by Sharon, a brother, George, of Somerset; a sister, Dorothy D’Arudda, of Fayetville, NC, and three nephews.
In 1946, pre-vaccine, a sister, Mary, died at the age of seven as a result of measles.
FUNERAL NOTICE: Burial will be private and at Sharon’s discretion. Flynn & Dagnoli Funeral Home -CENTRAL CHAPEL 74 Marshall St. North Adams, MA 01247 is entrusted with arrangements.
Born at home on May 22, 1930, In Somerset, Massachusetts, Chick (Chuck), was one of two sons and two daughters born to Charles H. Tompkins and Mary R. (Dailey) Tompkins. On his father’s side, he was descended from English settlers who arrived on this continent in the seventeenth century on the ship Truelove, his ancestors originally having settled in what is now Little Compton, R.I.; on his mother’s side, Irish immigrants in the nineteenth century.
In his youth he attended Pottersville Grammar School in Somerset, class of 1944, and in 1948 was a graduate of Somerset High School. From early age, very interested in sports, although somewhat handicapped, he actively participated on a non-organized level, and became an accomplished duck pin bowler. Ultimately, on individual and/or team levels, he contested in duck, candle, ten and rubber-band duck pin bowling.
With the formation of the Somerset Little League in 1051, he was manager of the Somerset Little League Red Sox for the first two years of that league, the team finishing the second in the first year and winning the championship in the second.
His education on hold because of recurring illness and uncertain military draft status during the Korean War (five attempts at enlistment and a medical rejection each time), on the day in 1952, at the Army processing center in Boston, where he was to be inducted into the army as a draftee, he was medically rejected for a final time.
High higher education consisted of an abbreviated attendance at Tri-State College of Angola, Ind. (terminated because of illness), attainment in 1957 of a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry, with honors, from Bradford Durfee College of Technology in Fall River, Mass. (now University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth) and a year of graduate study at the University of Pittsburg.
In 1959 he arrived in North Adams to begin employment at Sprague Electric Company. Over the years, through 1995, he was terminated from the company three times. After varying periods of unemployment, he was rehired each time; apparently as result of the efforts of friends and the necessity to the company of his job responsibilities. In 1995, he retired at his own discretion.
On July 20, 1963 he and Joan M. (Blanchette) O’Neill were married in Pittsfield, Mass. Joan passed in 2013, three months to the day short of fifty years of their marriage. As a result of their union, he became step-father to Sharon M. O’Neill, who in every way except genetics has been as true and loving a daughter as one could hope for.
The family moved to their hom in Clarksburg in 1965 and maintained residence there until his passing. Over the years, Joan was quite active in endeavors related to the town, while Chuck, because of the way he was, preferred to be at home.
He is survived by Sharon, a brother, George, of Somerset; a sister, Dorothy D’Arudda, of Fayetville, NC, and three nephews.
In 1946, pre-vaccine, a sister, Mary, died at the age of seven as a result of measles.
FUNERAL NOTICE: Burial will be private and at Sharon’s discretion. Flynn & Dagnoli Funeral Home -CENTRAL CHAPEL 74 Marshall St. North Adams, MA 01247 is entrusted with arrangements.